Scott Stringer Admits to Considering ‘Other Options’

“I’m actually doing what I’ve always done,” Stringer told me by phone. “The campaign finance system is very important to candidates who start thinking about their finances early in the cycle. We’re just interviewing people to assembly a financial team as I have every four years, as I did when I ran for borough president and when I run for re-election. So it’s part of what I would be doing.”

I asked him what office he might be interested in, and he didn’t tip his hand. “Right now, I’m just finishing my first term as borough president,” Stringer said. “Obviously in coming years I want to be in a position to consider other options. The best thing I can do at this time is focus on the job I have, not a job I want. The future tends to take care of itself.”

Stringer and I also talked about his endorsement today of Kirsten Gillibrand for the U.S. Senate; his name was at one point floated as a potential primary challenger. Liz says the announcement signals that it’s unliklely Bill Thompson will run in the primary. Stringer said he hasn’t spoken to Thompson about his plans.

“In politics, peoples’ names like mine get floated in and out by people like you. But my sense is that Senator Gillibrand is going to be the Democratic nominee, and I do thinking there’s going to be a competitive Republican in the general election—just because of the times we live in—and I wanted to help her start organizing the campaign now,” Stringer told me. “I wanted to have an impact, and really tell my supporters that I really feel that the work we’ve done together has really shown me a side of her that I didn’t know as well. Her work on food policy and her grasp of the issues has been very compelling to me. I just got to the point where I wanted to see her as my senator.”